The Object of History

On this episode, we travel beyond the northeast to examine South Carolina in the Revolutionary War. We examine the Siege of Charleston and compare the town's experience to that of Boston. Note that, although American forces besieged British troops in Boston, at Charleston, those roles were reversed and American forced held the city against an ultimately victorious British army. We also discuss the...

This is the final episode of a three-part look at the geography, characters, and events that shaped the first years of the American Revolution. In looking at the American Invasion of Canada (1775-1776) we are joined by Luc Nicole-Labrie, the Senior History Advisor at the National Battlefields Commission in Québec. Back at the MHS, we also examine a few items from the collections that shed light on...

This is part two out of a three-part look at the geography, characters, and events that shaped the first years of the American Revolution. In this episode, we discuss Revolutionary-era Maine and the burning of Falmouth in 1775. We visited the Maine Historical Society to discuss the bombardment of present-day Portland by Captain Henry Mowat and the Royal Navy as well as how residents viewed the con...

On this episode of The Object of History , we begin a three-part narrative about the geography, characters, and events that shaped the first years of the American Revolution. Part one starts in May of 1775 at Fort Ticonderoga, New York, on the banks of Lake Champlain.  We are joined by Fort Ticonderoga's Curator Dr. Matthew Keagle to discuss the capture of the fort, the colonists' dire need for ar...

In this episode, we look at the origins of smallpox inoculation in the colonies, discuss the experiences of the Adams family, and consider how the disease entered into debates about a general inoculation of the troops in the Continental Army. We call on the talents of MHS staff to bring John and Abigail Adams to life. Reference Librarian Daniel Hinchen portrays John Adams and Sarah Hume, an Editor...

Season 5 of The Object of History is dedicated to topics related to the American Revolution. On this first episode, we ask several historians for their thoughts on why Boston helped light the spark of the American Revolution. Was there something unique about Boston's community or geography that made it prone to a rebellious spirit? We sit down with J. L. Bell, Historian of the Revolutionary Era in...

Earlier this season, we visited the Ether Dome at the Massachusetts General Hospital to learn about the first public use of an anesthetic in surgery. On this bonus episode of The Object of History, we return to Mass General to visit the Paul S. Russell, MD Museum of Medical History and Innovation. MHS Podcast Producer Sam Hurwitz joins the Director of the Museum, Sarah Alger, for a tour where they...

Earlier in this season of The Object of History , we visited the tombs of Robert C. Winthrop (Season 4, Episode 4) and Isabella Stewart Gardner (Season 4, Episode 5). In both episodes, we asked Meg Winslow, Senior Curator of Historical Collections & Archives at Mount Auburn Cemetery, to provide some context for our listeners. On this bonus episode, we revisit Mount Auburn, learn more about its his...

In the first episode of Season 4 of  The Object of History , we briefly discussed the filling in of the Charles River bay when we introduced listeners to the Historical Society's building at 1154 Boylston Street. On this bonus episode, we invited one of our 2025 Dean W. Eastman Undergraduate Library Residents, Vivienne Charpentier, to dive deeper into history of the Back Bay. Vivienne tells us mor...

To conclude our tour of institutions that are connected to the MHS through our collections, we cross the street to the Fenway Victory Gardens , the oldest continuously operated victory gardens in its original location in the United States. Not only does the MHS hold the papers of this remarkable site of urban farming, but our staff also tend to a small plot amongst its 7.5 acres of land. We speak...

On this episode of The Object of History , we visit an item from the MHS collection currently on loan to the Museum of African American History on Boston's Beacon Hill. We examine the imposing stone that enabled the printing of William Lloyd Garrison's abolitionist publication, The Liberator . While visiting the Museum, we learn more about the building's importance to African American history in B...

On this episode, we visit the Massachusetts Audubon Society (Mass Audubon). While there, we examine some objects related to the early history of the Society from Membership Specialist, Emily Gray. MHS Chief Historian Peter Drummey and Bancroft Poor, Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer at Mass Audubon, tell us about the Society's formation as an advocacy group at the turn of the twe...

On this episode, we continue our visit to Mount Auburn Cemetery. Joined by biographer Natalie Dykstra, we visit the Gardner tomb where Isabella Stewart Gardner is buried. We learn more about Gardner and her family's relationship to the history of Boston from Dykstra and Chief Historian Peter Drummey. Mount Auburn is the first American cemetery that purposely combined commemoration with elements of...

On this episode, we visit the Mount Auburn Cemetery in nearby Cambridge and Watertown, Massachusetts. Following a suggestion by Hannah Elder, Associate Reference Librarian for Rights and Reproductions at the MHS, we investigate one connection that we have to the Cemetery: a key to Robert C. Winthrop's tomb.  Mount Auburn is the first American cemetery that purposely combined commemoration with ele...

In this episode, we visit the Bulfinch Building at the Massachusetts General Hospital to examine one of the most, if not the most, significant discoveries in modern medicine. Sarah Alger, the Director of the Paul S. Russell, MD Museum of Medical History and Innovation, shows us the hospital's Ether Dome where the first public surgery using an anesthetic was performed. Back at the MHS, we sit down...

In this episode, we begin our exploration of the greater Boston area and institutions that are connected to the MHS through shared collections. We first visit the Old North Church located in the North End to speak with Nikki Stewart, Executive Director of Old North Illuminated, and Patrick Gabridge, the producing artistic director of Plays in Place. We learn more about the building, its significan...

Join us on January 6, 2025 for  Historians  & Their   Histories ,   the   new podcast from the Massachusetts Historical Society. In this new series, we are introducing you to the historians who write  the histories . In each episode, we sit down with a scholar who has received fellowship support from the Massachusetts Historical Society.   We learn about their   origin stories   and ask them about...

On this season of  The Object of History , we are visiting institutions and organizations that have a connection to the MHS either through collections that we house or objects that we have loaned to them. But, first, we begin this season by discussing our very own headquarters in Boston. We sit down with various MHS staff members to learn more about the construction of the building, its maintenanc...

In a recent episode of The Object of History , titled " The Mortal & Everlasting Life of Frederic Augustus James: Enduring Life Behind the Deadline of a Civil War POW Camp ", we discussed Frederic Augustus James's experience in the Andersonville prisoner of war camp during the Civil War. In this bonus episode, we sit down with MHS Library Assistant Brandon McGrath-Neely. Brandon shares his impress...

In a recent episode of The Object of History , titled " Events That Did Not Happen ", we examined several items from the MHS collections that marked events that did not actually take place. In this bonus episode, we sit down with MHS Library Assistant Hannah Goeselt to learn more about Boston's statue of Leif Erikson and Eben Horsford's efforts to commemorate Norse discoverers of America.  Learn m...

In this episode, we are focusing on the Civil War and the prisoner of war experience of Frederic Augustus James and others like him. Elaine Heavey, the Director of the Library at the MHS, introduces us to James' diary and letters held by the MHS. Historian Evan Kutzler, author of Living By Inches: The Smells, Sounds, Tastes, and Feeling of Captivity in Civil War Prisons , tells us more about the p...

On this episode, we take a look at events that never happened and are yet commemorated in some fashion. We find the monument to one such event on Boston's Commonwealth Avenue Mall. We also take a look at a token that marks the presidential election of an American politician and a set of medals struck to mark a great naval victory, neither of which happened. Learn more about episode objects here: h...

In this episode, we continue our conversation with Prof. Matthew Dennis, author of the book American Relics and the Politics of Public Memory . Prof. Dennis discussed corporeal relics with us in Part 1 of this discussion. In Part 2, we talk about natural specimens as well as objects that are given significance by the connection they have to an historic event or figure. MHS Curator of Art & Artifac...

In this episode, we speak with historian Matthew Dennis about his book, which looks at relics in American memory. With Peter Drummey, the Chief Historian & Stephen T. Riley Librarian, and Anne Bentley, the Curator of Art & Artifacts Emerita at the MHS, we examine two pieces of a blood-soaked towel and a fishhook made from human bone. Learn more about episode objects here: https://www.masshist.org/...

On this episode, we are investigating the phenomenon of Egyptomania, a "fascination with the style of Egypt, but also the people, and the landscape, and antiquity". We sit down with Lea Stephenson, a PhD Candidate in Art History at the University of Delaware, to examine Egyptomania's second wave during the Gilded Age. Lea helps us examine two collections by Americans who documented their travels t...